SAGINAW, MI — While holiday traditions are warmly welcomed by families during Thanksgiving, some are left out.

But Saginaw's Savoy Bar and Grill welcomed all on Wednesday, Nov. 27, with a free Thanksgiving meal and slices of apple and pumpkin pies.

It was the seventh year the restaurant at 127 S. Franklin provided free Thanksgiving meals for people on a first-come, first-served basis.

“There was a need in the community to give back. Since we’re both good at cooking, we decided we’d try it. The first year, it was completely out of our own pocket. We did 98 percent of the work. We were here hours and hours and hours, working. It was very nerve-wracking,” said Savoy’s co-owner Jim Atwood. “The second year, we got volunteers. It’s grown from there. This year actually, I turned away about 10-15 people. I knew if they were all here there would be way too many people. This year I think we have four new people, which is cool. It just grows every year.”

Atwood said 32 turkeys were donated, along with bags upon bags of apples he used for apple pies. His restaurant made 70 apple and pumpkin pies. He expected nearly 600 people to come in for a meal on Wednesday.

It made sense that a journeyman named Herman “Denali” Daniels found himself in Savoy’s on Wednesday. He sat at a table with his foot-long beard hanging barely above his food.

“The food’s great and the place is nice,” Daniels said, looking at historic photographs on the wall next to him. “I love the cranberry sauce. It brings back memories of dinners with family, because you remember how good the food is. Sometimes you get a new flavor and it creates a new memory.”

Daniels has extensively traveled the United States, visiting 41 national parks in the past three years taking photographs. The nickname Denali came from his extensive walking around Denali National Park in Alaska.

Daniels said he’s in Saginaw house-sitting for a friend and is stuck in Saginaw as his 1994 Geo with 260,000 miles needs to get fixed before he continues exploring national parks. Each of his stories about travel concluded with a laugh and punch line: life is too short. I’m disabled, but I’m not dead, he said a few times.

The feeling of life being too short to have no fun was a theme reflected in Savoy’s co-owner Jim Atwood’s motivation for the free meals.

“It’s an opportunity for people to come in and sit at tables together,” Atwood said. “Maybe they’ll make a new friend or maybe they’re just able to share a story or a laugh with somebody and make their day a little better.”

Daniels sat next to a couple guys he had never seen before in his life. They ate their Thanksgiving meals together.

“I was kind of hesitant at first, which is weird because I love to talk,” Daniels said. “Once we started talking, it was like we were already friends. There’s a lot of interesting people here. Everybody has a story.”

Atwood said he gets great joy from helping so many people cultivate some sense of a normal Thanksgiving. However, he said, the loneliness some people have when they come for their meal is emotional.

“There was a lady that came in today and she told me she doesn’t have family here. She doesn’t have any children left — they’ve all passed,” said Atwood. “She said she decided she was going to come down here and have dinner today. It tears you up, that people just don’t have the family around."